Staff Member

Comment: this looks like a good time to avoid Vientiane as there should be 48 heads of state / ministers there. Dates: 5 - 6 November 20

Read on.....

Lao Govt Approves 240 Billion Kip For ASEM9

(KPL) The Lao government has already approved its budget around 240 billion kip for organizing the forthcoming biggest event ever held in Laos"The 9th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit", scheduled on 5-6 November, Minister of Finance, Mr. Phouphet Khamphounvong said yesterday.

The total budget of 240 billion kip of its own budget, of which 40 per cent was spent on purchasing vehicles for serving Head of State and Party Leaders and high-ranking Lao officials during the summit, and the rest will be used for other administration, Mr. Phouphet who is also Head of Sub-Committee on Budget and Vehicle Purchasing told local media.

Besides, Lao government received grant assistances and soft loan from friendly countries and overseas spending on infrastructure development projects for the ASEM, he said.

Vietnam granted US$500,000 in cash and some equipment, while China gave 450 million yuan of grant assistance and provides US$37 million soft loan, and also donated ten buses.

Meanwhile, 1,935 million yen and US$3 million were granted by the government of Japan on supporting the event. Thailand provided 190 million baht, of which 30 per cent was grant assistance and 70 per cent was soft loan, and Brunei Darussalam gave US$500,000.

In addition, the Europe has helped to bring Lao officials learning from experienced countries in Europe on ASEM orginising and will also provide 18 interpreters with six languages.

Australia and Singapore assisted on training English language for protocol arrangement for organising and interpreting.

While Pakistan provided ten sets of desktop for the summit. These assistances are significant contribution to the preparation of the ASEM, Mr. Phouphet stressed.

He continued that Lao government bought vehicles for summit including 40 brand new cars of Mercedes S350 and 65 brand new cars of E350, 130 brand new cars of Toyota Camry, 11 brand new cars of BMW and ten buses.

Buying a large batch of car, we can save more money about US$3 million compared to common price of the company.

However ten buses are not enough, in the real demand are 100 buses. So we have to lend 50 buses from ministries and rent 40 buses from private company for the summit, added Mr. Phouphet.

Such a large number of vehicles, we have also required a lot of drivers.

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Its looks like there should be 48 heads of stare / ministers in Vientiane for the show.
Expect the capital to be locked down for those few days.